Accor has opened its first UK hotel under its economy brand, greet, a 119-room property in Harlow, Essex, converted from an existing hotel. The hotel trades under a franchise agreement with Accor. It is owned by Proark and run day-to-day by the management company Aimbridge Hospitality EMEA.
The opening was reported on 13 October 2026 by Hospitality and Catering News and Hotel Owner. greet is Accor’s economy brand. It has more than 45 hotels open and more than 10 in its development pipeline, according to the announcement. The Harlow hotel, now called greet London Harlow, previously traded as The Harlow Hotel by AccorHotels. The hotel owner gives the same room count. Neither report gives room rates or the number of staff.
Owner, operator and brand: three separate parties
The Harlow hotel splits three roles between three companies. Proark, a Danish real estate group, owns the property. Aimbridge Hospitality EMEA manages the hotel. Accor licenses the greet brand to the hotel under a franchise agreement. Accor neither owns nor runs the hotel. The financial terms of the franchise agreement have not been published.
The hotel is one of six Proark properties in England and Wales that Aimbridge took over in January 2025, alongside Mercure hotels in Bedford, Nottingham, Birmingham, Telford and Cardiff. At the time, the trade press reported that Aimbridge would oversee operations in partnership with Proark and Accor. The relationship between Proark and Accor goes back further.
The Caterer reported that Proark’s six hotels, with 864 rooms between them, were rebranded from Park Inn to Accor brands from 2019 under a hotel management agreement. The Caterer listed the six as Bedford, Cardiff, Harlow, Nottingham, Telford and Birmingham. The Harlow hotel has now moved from that model to a franchise agreement, with Aimbridge as manager.
A conversion, not a new build
greet arrives in the UK through a rebrand of an existing hotel rather than a new build. Neither report gives a figure for the cost of the conversion or says how long the work took. Aiden McAuley, spokesperson for Accor in the UK and Ireland, said: “The arrival of greet marks an important milestone for Accor.” Michael Brag, chairman of Proark UK Hotels, said: “We look forward to welcoming guests to discover the brand’s feel-good approach to travel.”
Good to know
Hotel franchising in the UK is a business-to-business arrangement between a brand and a property owner, usually an investor or hotel group. There is no franchise statute in the UK: the agreement is governed by general contract law.
What comes next for greet in the UK
The hotel is marketed as greet London Harlow. Proark’s UK hotels sit within Proark UK Hotels, chaired by Michael Brag. Accor has not said how many greet hotels it intends to open in the UK, or whether other Proark properties will move to the brand. The development pipeline of more than ten hotels quoted in the announcement covers the whole network, not the UK alone. For now, Harlow is greet’s only UK site. Brands recruiting individual operators rather than property investors can be compared among those taking on partners in the UK.
